Unsung heroes: Punjab’s village of 007s aims to bond with Modi

DADWAN VILLAGE (Dhariwal, Gurdaspur): Fiftyseven-year-old hawk-nosed former spy Sunil Masih, his body scarred from being hung from a ceiling, has just returned to Gurdaspur. He had been languishing in Karachi’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.
Sunil is part of 160-odd penniless former (RAW) and IB informers. Jobless today, he frequently protests at rallies addresses by Congress Lok Sabha candidate Partap Bajwa here.Among other former spies, David is paralysed and Daniel plies a rickshaw.
Disowned by the central agencies after their arrest in Pakistan, they are all Sarabjit Singhs of this tiny hamlet of Dadwan, known as the “village of spies”. They say they’ll vote for BJP because of Narendra Modi’s views on defence and his hawkish line on Pakistan.
But before they vote, they have some demands. These include respectable rehabilitation, status similar to ex-servicemen and martyrs, a special service welfare board and pension to surviving spies or their wives. In effect, they want the government to admit that they spied for the country. “Rahul, Sonia and the PM ignored our cries for help while Sarabjit’s family luckily got Rs 1 crore. We see some hope in Modi who criticized India’s foreign policy on Pakistan after the beheading of soldiers,” fumes David.
With every mission, they must return with a list of new weapons in Karachi from China, troop movement, photographs of army exercises and phone directories. With no government record of the work they do, they say their remuneration has seen only a marginal hike – from Rs 3,000 per month in the 1980s to Rs 20,000 today.
Although they are sure that if elected, Modi will look into their demands, they are critical of BJP’s ally and the ruling Akali Dal government.
“Nothing changed for us despite random functions held on August 15 and January 26 where the CM gave us some certifi cates,” says former spy Upender Singh. Gurbaksh Singh, his friend, agrees. Both are now settled in Ferozepur.
Spurned and left with no support from Akalis and Congresss, son of a former spy and local journalist Gaurav Bhaskar, started a group called Espionage Victims Association last year in neighbouring Ferozepur.